The Case
June 28, 1993
3:15 A.M.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1993, State troopers Deborah Spaargaren and Sean Ruane were working the graveyard shift in East Meadow, Long Island, when they saw a pickup truck with no license plate ahead of them, at 3:15 A.M. The driver wasn't speeding, but not having a plate in itself a minor violation, and they turned the flashers on, and prepared to write a quick ticket.Curiously the driver of the pickup did not stop. He didn't speed up either, but he kept driving. When the troopers used their siren, it was like he didn't hear them, as well as when Ruane got on the loudspeaker and ordered him to stop. Ten minutes later, with a call for reinforcements on the air, the driver missed a turn and crashed into a lamp post at a Mineola intersection. Faced with guns now, the driver gave his license up and stepped out of the car.By that time, Ruane and Spaargaren had smelled his reeking cargo, moving toward the rear bed of the truck, where something long and thick was wrapped in plastic, and also wrapped with rope. A peek inside the tarp revealed a woman's decomposing body. The man identified as Joel Rifkin, now in handcuffs, helped identify the body as 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani. "She was a prostitute", he told the officers." I had sex with her, and then I killed her". He was on his way to dump the body near Republic Airport, he explained, when he was spotted by Ruane and Spaargaren. The case was open-and-shut but it was far from over. In custody, Rifkin soon began confessing to other homicides, a total of seventeen, including Bresciani. The murders spanned for four years, and all the victims were described as prostitutes by Rifkin, though surviving relatives of several of the victims dispute his claim. Whatever their employment status, there was no doubt of the body count unless, some officers suggested, Rifkins estimate was way off from the truth.
Case Details
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Dismemberment
Number of victims: 9 - 17
Date of murders: 1989 - 1993
Date of arrest: June 28, 1993
Date of birth: January 20, 1959
Victims profile: Susie (never identified) , Julie Blackbird (remains never found), Barbara Jacobs 31, Mary Ellen DeLuca 22, Yun Lee 31, “Number six” no name remains never found , Lorraine Orvieto 28, Mary Ann Holloman 39, “Number nine” remains anonymous, Iris Sanchez 25, Anna Lopez 33, Violet O’Neill 21, Mary Catherine Williams 31, Jenny Soto 23, Leah Evens 28, Lauren Marquez 28, Tiffany Bresciani 22, (mostly drug addicted prostitutes)
Method of murder: Strangulation
Status: Found guilty of nine murders in 1994 and sentenced to 203 years to life. He would be eligible for parole only in 2197, at the age of 238.
Distance from William Floyd
The location of the dismemberment's and the murders took place in Rifkin's home in East Meadow. His home is 37.7 miles away from William Floyd High School. It would take 51 minutes to get to his actual home in at 1492 Garden Street , East Meadow, NY.